DVD Demystified

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Glossary
mother The metal discs produced from mirror images of the father disc
in the replication process. Mothers are used to make stampers, often
called sons.
motion compensation In video decoding, the application of motion
vectors to already-decoded blocks in order to construct a new picture.
motion estimation In video encoding, the process of analyzing previous
or future frames to identify blocks that have not changed or have
changed only their location. Motion vectors are then stored in place of
the blocks. This is very computation-intensive and can cause visual
artifacts when subject to errors.
motion vector A two-dimensional spatial displacement vector used for
MPEG motion compensation to provide an offset from the encoded position
of a block in a reference (I or P) picture to the predicted position (in
a P or B picture).
MP@ML Main profile at main level. The common MPEG-2 format used
by DVD (along with SP@SL).
MP3 MPEG-1 Layer III audio. A perceptual audio coding algorithm. Not
supported in DVD-Video or DVD-Audio formats.
MPEG Moving Picture Experts Group. An international committee that
developed the MPEG family of audio and video compression systems.
MPEG audio Audio compressed according to the MPEG perceptual
encoding system. MPEG-1 audio provides two channels, which can be
in Dolby Surround format. MPEG-2 audio adds data to provide discrete
multichannel audio. Stereo MPEG audio is one of two mandatory audio
compression system for 625/50 (PAL/SECAM) DVD-Video.
MPEG video Video compressed according to the MPEG encoding system.
MPEG-1 is typically used for low data rate video such as on a
Video CD. MPEG-2 is used for higher-quality video, especially interlaced
video, such as on DVD or HDTV.
MTBF Mean time between failure. A measure of reliability for electronic
equipment, usually determined in benchmark testing. The
higher the MTBF, the more reliable the hardware.
Mt. Fuji See SFF 8090.
multiangle A DVD-Video program containing multiple angles, allowing
different views of a scene to be selected during playback.
multichannel Multiple channels of audio, usually containing different
signals for different speakers in order to create a surround-sound
effect.
multilanguage A DVD-Video program containing sound tracks or
subtitle tracks for more than one language.